Georgina close to kidding

It looks as though Georgina is close to kidding.  She's been checked out by the vet as she has a prolapse of her uterus. The vet is not too worried, telling me this is reasonably common. Georgina has been given an injection to induce her. We will be checking on her regularly throughout the night.

Milking Pinkie

Pinkie's health has been of some concern recently. She stopped milking early in December, nearly two months earlier than the previous cycle. She has been getting a bit thin and when she seemed unwell a couple of weeks ago, the vet came out to look at her and suggested she may have a breathing problem. He also said that she wasn't pregnant. In a sense, we were pleased about that latter point. We want her to get her health back and put some weight back on. That wasn't going to be achieved if she were pregnant again. In the meantime, we've been feeding her more food (not easy with the other 3 goats around).

However, over the past 10 days or so, her udders have been swelling up. She has started lactating even though she is not pregnant. Tonight, I decided to milk her. She gave us 1.5 litres. Though Pinkie is our only milking goat, I'd prefer her not to be lactating. I need her energy directed at putting weight back on. So even though we have increased her feed, we are going to increase it further. Fortunately, spring greenery is growing so we can add this to her diet.

RIP Rocky

Rocky was our first cockerel. He was a light sussex/silkie cross. We were given him by a friend and he lived with our chickens for a year. Then we were told we were no longer allowed to keep cockerels on our allotment so we rehoused him with another friend, Laura, who has a smallholding. Laura also runs the Paddock Farm Shop in High Spen, Gateshead where we sell our eggs. Sadly, Laura's flock of chickens fell prey to a fox last week. Most of them were killed, including Rocky. The fox actually struck through the day. Fortunately, some of the hens escaped the attack and managed to hide themselves away. Over the following 2 days, 16 birds returned, though 40 died.

Unexpected rhubarb

We hadn't been up to our Marley Hill allotment for a couple of weeks but a visit there yesterday meant we discovered some rhubarb growing in our compost heap. It seems some partial roots had been dug up during a weeding session and dumped on the heap where they started sprouting. We've now extended the rhubarb bed on the Farside allotment to accommodate them.

Setting up the mini-greenhouse

The warm winter and early spring meant we were planting seeds early. The greenhouse is now full of seed trays so we have set up a mini one in the back garden. I suspect the garden will be used more productively this year. Previously, our food producing activities have been on our allotments. The garden space however is needed for growing.

A pile of cabbages

One of the other allotment holders left a large pile of cabbages outside our gate today, presumably for the goats. I sorted through them and found that many are in a good enough condition for us to eat. A small number will therefore find their way back to our kitchen. To balance this, someone has been leaving large quantities of swedes for the goats. There seems to be an endless supply.

Whinnies open day

We rent our 2 large allotments from the Whinnies Community Garden in Sunniside and on Easter Sunday, 16th April, from 11am to 3pm, there will be an open day. I am organising it! I am hoping we will have some goat babies by then to show off, though Georgina is taking her time to produce them. I'll publish more details about the open day once they are arranged.

Sprouts

One of my favourite foods is sprouts. And I have just replenished our supply after a friend invited us to pick all the sprout plants for the goats. Many of the actual sprouts themselves were in a good enough condition to be used by us. I will be making sprout and stilton soup. Watch this space.



What we didn't use ourselves, the goats enjoyed.

Blackthorn blossom

The blackthorn in the local hedgerows is now blossoming. For a number of years now we have had next to no sloe crop. Hopefully this year will give us at least a modest supply. We don't just use them to make sloe gin. We use them in hedgerow jelly and, were we to have enough, they make a great jelly when combined with crab apples.

Paving completed

I have just about finished making the paved area for the goats from the broken paving stones I was given. They love it, spending quite a bit of time sleeping on it, through both day and night. I have some unbroken paving stones which we will be using to create more paths soon.

Saved from the oven

I'm pleased to report that we have now rehoused the barnvelder cockerel. He went to a new home on Saturday evening, along with a couple of our hens to keep him company. So, fortunately for him, we did not have to slaughter, roast and eat him.

Potato planting

After a number of weeks chitting in the garage, the potatoes have been planted. We are growing rooster, King Edwards and pink fur apples. They have gone into the Farside allotment, where we plan to grow most of our fruit. This allotment hasn't been used for years but planting potatoes will help break up the ground.

Planting Up Kingsway Orchard

Kingsway community orchard which I helped set up 6 years ago in Sunniside, the village where I live, had a recent addition of 100 trees, thanks to a deal I was able to strike with environmental charity Groundwork. They had a huge number of fruit trees they wanted sold so I was able to negotiate a deal for 100 trees for a total price of £200. Given that a fruit tree typically costs about £25, this was definitely a bargain not to be overlooked. Gateshead Council's Local Community Fund paid for the trees and officers arranged for the Princes Trust volunteers to plant them on Tuesday. The orchard was therefore able to extend onto the wasteland next to the trees that have been there for 6 years. Hopefully this will grow into a great community asset in the years to come (though it will be quite some time before there will be any fruit.)

Spring greens

We are now into spring. Hooray! Days longer than nights! The weather has been mild enough recently for grass, dock, dandelion and goosegrass to be growing well. And that means lots of extra feed for the animals.

Poorly Pinkie

Spotless made a rapid recovery last week but then the spotlight switched to Pinkie who, on Friday morning, was looking poorly. She refused to stand up and leave her shed. She was off her food. Later in the day, the vet was called. There was a second visit from the vet on Sunday. It now looks as though she could have a lung disorder. And she is probably not pregnant. She has gone quite thin and boney but now that she is feeling better, we are giving her lots of extra food. In a sense, I'm pleased she isn't pregnant as it would be too physically demanding on her. It does, however, leave us with a problem. The chances are that we are now going to be without a milking goat this year. Spot, our youngest nanny, daughter of Georgina, is a cross breed and will be kidding for the first time in the next few weeks. We have no idea if she will turn out to be a milker. If she doesn't, we may start the search for a ready-to-milk nanny.

Paving for goats

My brother gave me lots of broken paving stones from his garden recently. Not wanting to overlook the opportunity to turn waste into something useful, we are now using the stones to create a paved area for the goats. On our livestock allotment, most of the ground surface is soft earth. The natural habitat of goats is rocky hillsides. Therefore their hooves are worn down naturally. That doesn't happen on soft earth so we have to clip their hooves, which is a challenging job.

So far we have used only a small number of the stones so this is a work-in-progress. The goats however do seem to like the paved area, especially today as the ground is so wet following heavy rain.

In the parcel post today: quail eggs

We have now gone through three generations of quail since we got our first quail hatching eggs in 2014. We have decided to broaden the gene pool to avoid too much interbreeding and have therefore ordered 24 hatching eggs from a completely different source to the one we used 3 years ago. The eggs arrived this morning and have just gone into the incubator. In 16 days they should hatch.

Rendering fat

We found a couple of pork chops in one of our freezers on Saturday. They were from the last pig we got a couple of years ago. We defrosted them and had them for dinner on Sunday. The bones will be dried out and made into bonemeal. The fat and skin have now been rendered down to make lard. Nothing wasted.

Jerusalem artichokes for planting

For a number of years we have grown Jerusalem artichokes. Sadly, the goats and chickens wrecked the crop we would otherwise have dug up over the recent winter. We have now bought 25 tubers which were planted today on our farside allotment. I love this vegetable, despite its ability to make you a gold medalist in the flatulence Olympics. A great winter food.

Planting onions

One of our most important crops is onions. We bought onion sets in January and recently we planted these into seed trays which are now in the greenhouse. Once they have started growing, and the final frosts are behind us, we'll plant them out on the farside allotment.

Blackcurrant vodka

A rather pleasant find in the wardrobe where we stash our homemade fruit liqueurs: a jar of blackcurrant vodka with the fruit still in it. It made for a pleasant tipple on Sunday evening. I will eke it out over the next couple of weeks.

Bad news on the bees

We have some bad news about our bees. We checked our remaining 3 colonies over the weekend and, as I feared, they were dead. This has badly hit our ability to produce a cash crop with a premium return. We will have to rescue the situation as soon as possible. We have put out a message to beekeeping friends to tell people we are in the market to buy bees in the spring. We have had an offer to crate 4 nucs in June. We have accepted this but will be looking to buywhole hives as well.

First quail egg

A couple of days ago we had the first quail egg of the year. And this morning, we had 2. So it looks as though the quails know spring is on its way. Meanwhile, I have ordered quail hatching eggs from a different source to the one we previously used 3 years ago when we first hatched quail eggs. This is to widen the gene pool. After 3 generations of interbreeding, there was a need to add some new genes to the colony.

No more privet

We had hoped to have enough privet to feed the goats up to April, when the hawthorn leaves will be available. Alas, we cut back what was left of the available privet earlier this month. That meant we have had to buy in feed for the goats. We have plans to avoid having to pay for feed in the winter of 17/18. We will be making much more hay (what we made last year has now long gone).

Sick billy

Spotless, our billy goat, hasn't been well today. He's had the runs and was off his food. I think he has eaten something he shouldn't have. I've seen both Pinkie and Georgina each suffer something similar. They take a day to get it out of their systems. I'm hoping he will be back to his usual self tomorrow.

Still no babies

Georgina is still as pregnant as ever. She is keeping us all waiting. I am away this weekend and I'm almost tempted to place a bet on her giving birth when I'm not there. Watch this space!

Bee improvement course

On Saturday 4th March, I helped run a bee improvement day at Marley Hill Community Centre for beekeepers in the North East. I was there to help serve teas and coffees, not be a lecturer! Alas, I had to leave at 11am as I was double booked. I had to go down to Whickham with our billy goat, Spotless, for a planting event. I had been invited and asked to bring a goat to help promote the event. I was back at Marley Hill at 3pm, just in time to miss most of the bee improvement day.

Wild Garlic

The wild garlic has already started growing. I picked some last week in Kindred Wood in Sunniside. It was used in a vegetable soup. We have lots of eggs now so watch out for the wild garlic flans we'll be making soon.

Rehousing a cockerel

We hatched some barnvelder eggs last year. 3 chicks have been growing up but this is a slower developing breed. That means we didn't know what sex they were until the start of March. One of them is a cockerel. We are actively looking for a new home for him (we aren't allowed to keep cockerels on our site) as he is a magnificent bird (as well as a rare breed). If we fail in this mission, sadly for him he will be joining us for dinner.

Breaking records

22 eggs from our hens today. This is the highest this year so far and much bigger than what we were getting this time last year. The biggest total ever to beat is 24 which we got in the early summer last year.

Not long to go

Georgina is showing symptoms of being close to kidding. Her udders have started swelling up, her back is looking hollowed out and, this morning, her tail was curved downwards. It could be she has just a few days to go.

Spotless spotted at planting event

On Saturday I was invited by Planting Up Whickham, a group of volunteers who maintain the flowerbeds in Whickham Village, to bring a goat to a maintenance event they were holding. The group decided it would make for some interesting publicity. I decided to take Spotless as the nannies are pregnant (very pregnant with respect to Georgina and Spot). As he was being moved off the site, I had to get a disapplying certificate from DEFRA.

Spot was quite a hit with passers-by and also with the Bishop of Carlisle, who was helping out at the event. As I was also the photographer and video maker for the group, by brother Andrew became goat-minder for part of the event.

Releasing the poultry

On Tueday, DEFRA restrictions on keeping poultry confined were relaxed. At last, we were able to let our hens and ducks go free range again.

Planting broad beans

The broad bean seeds were planted  at our Marley Hill allotment yesterday. Beans are a crucial crop for us. They are full of protein. We are trying out two varieties: Express and Witkiem.